Agenda item

(To receive a report by Pam Clipson, Head of Finance – Adult Care, which invites the Committee to consider a report on Flat Rate Respite Care (Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report) which is due to be considered by the Executive at its meeting on 7 September 2021.  The views of the Committee will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

The Committee was invited to consider a report on Flat Rate Respite Care (Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Report), which was also due to be considered by the Executive on 7 September 2021.

It was reported that on 16 March 2021, the Local Government Ombudsman published a public report following an investigation into how Lincolnshire County Council charged individuals for respite care.  It had found that the policy of charging a "flat rate" did not accord with the Care Act 2014.  The report set out the actions taken by the Council in respect of charging for short term residential care.

It was also noted that the Council had changed the way it charged for respite care as detailed in the Adult Care Charging Policy, effective 14 April 2020 and had commenced reimbursing those individuals identified as overcharged.  Individuals entering short term care were now charged based on a financial assessment to determine affordability.   There were 1525 individuals who had potentially been overcharged, and the costs of reimbursing these costs was estimated to be around £500,000.  Each person would be written to individually to advise they were entitled to a reimbursement.  So far 72 people had responded, and £25,330 had been paid out.  Work had started to contact those who were impacted the most, and was on track to write to all those affected within the agreed timescale of 31 October 2021.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Concerns were raised in relation to the people who may have been in need of care during this time, and would have been entitled to it, but did not choose to enter respite care due to the costs.  It was queried whether there had been an increase in people seeking respite care since the policy had been changed.  It was noted that if any individual had chosen not to take up respite care it would have been picked up by staff.

·         It was highlighted that Lincolnshire was not the only council to have been in discussion with the Ombudsman about charging policies.  It was noted that this was a policy which changed quite frequently.

·         It was confirmed that of the people who had received the flat rate respite care, some people would have been charged more than they should have paid, and some would have been charged too little.  A decision had been taken to repay those who had paid too much, and not to reclaim from those who had been charged too little.

·         It was queried why it was expected to take three months for the Council to contact all the affected individuals and repay the money.  Members were advised that a lot of the people were no longer in the care of Lincolnshire County Council and so they needed to be tracked down, offered the refund, and wait for them to accept it.  It was also highlighted that each person would be written to individually, with the amount of refund they were due set out in the letter.  Some people also did not believe that the letter and the offer of a refund was genuine.  There was no intention to calculate and add interest to any of the refunds.  It was noted that the largest amount to be repaid was around £2,000. 

·         The Ombudsman had accepted that the Council would not be paying refunds to the families of individuals where a relative had passed away.

·         It was queried whether any other similar Ombudsman reports had been received, and it was confirmed that one had been received in relation to gross v net payments which related to a previous policy from government, and since then the financial assessments had been changed and a number of improvements had been implemented within the Council.

·         It was noted that the IT systems had been reviewed and it was queried whether this had resulted in any financial savings for the authority.  It was commented that the improvements would allow charges to be made in a timely manner as it was all online, and so there would be a more efficient and better customer experience, but no immediate savings were expected.

·         It was queried there was any reputational damage to the Council because of the Ombudsman report, and it was confirmed that if the Ombudsman found against any council there would be an impact, however, this tended to be transient.  However, there was also an opportunity to learn from other councils, and Lincolnshire tried to learn as much as possible from the Ombudsman findings.  It was also highlighted that the Council had only two cases against it in recent years.

·         It was noted that a fail-safe had been put in place so that should an individual's charge increase unexpectedly, this would go through to the Head of Finance and the Assistant Director to determine whether this charge was appropriate for that person.

·         Charges for respite care were now determined according to affordability following a financial assessment.

·         Assurance was given that there had been a full review of the charging policies and practices in April 2020, and these policies and practices would continue to be regularly reviewed, taking into account any legislative or statutory guidance changes as well as best practice.

RESOLVED

            That the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee supports the recommendations to the Executive as set out in the report.